1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to headpieces with a visor or similar projection from the brim, used for shading the eyes from the sun.
In particular, this invention pertains to the mechanized display of team logos, pennants, symbols, flags, product logos, seasonal greetings, advertising slogans, messages and the like, on the brim/visor of head apparel.
2. Description of Prior Art
With the advent of the baseball cap, sports teams, advertisers and cap manufacturers have sewn, stitched, ironed-on, and through various other means, affixed the logo of their teams, company or message to the forehead covering portion of the cap.
Some have even made the visor of a translucent plastic and painted their logos or messages directly onto the visor.
The U.S. Military uses the visor to display rank. In the army the visor on caps is used to display the stars of generals. And in the navy and NASA, the visor is used to display the "scrambled eggs" epaulets of officers. (See page 78 of "Quartermaster" [750 Long Beach Blvd. Long Beach, Calif. 908713] catalog for a picture of "scrambled eggs" on a typical cap).
No company, country, inventor, or organization, however, has taken advantage of the platform-like message displaying potential that a mechanized device could exploit if attached onto the celestial side of the visor on an existing piece of head wear.
The applicant performed an exhaustive search to find any applicable prior art examples in the abstracts listed in the OFFICIAL GAZETTE but could not find any prior art example that described a mechanized device of any description that attached to the visor of a headpiece.
The areas searched by the applicant included:
______________________________________ Class Subclass ______________________________________ Amusement and Exercising Devices 272 Amusement Devices, Toys 446 * Amusement Devices, Games 273 1 Apparel Apparatus 223 2 Merchandising 186 Motors, Spring, Weight and Animal Powered 185 4 Oscillators 331 Spring Devices 267 5 * Design D21 59+ Spinning and Whirling 446 236+ Figure Toys 446 268+ 1 Design D21 240+ 2 Adornment, Attachable D11 4 Spring 185 37+ 5 Toy Vehicle 446 464 ______________________________________
U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,820 to Satoru Ebihara, and Jiro Yamaguchi illustrates a moving animal toy whose wind-up operating mechanism is the closest application of a wind up system the applicant could find to the invention presented for the examiner's review in this patent application. But since this animal toy teaches a way to execute a walking motion and not a stationary pivoting motion of a reciprocator in a visor mounted device, the invention described herein for the examiner's consideration which comprises a similar wind-up device shows new and surprising results.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,261 to Michihiro Kozuka, and Masayuki Tonokura teaches a method of accomplishing pivotal movement of a toy on a support surface with a similar wind-up mechanism. Though the system to provide the energy for the movement may be similar to the system of the Mechanized Brim/Visor Display Device explained here, the results are dramatically different.
The applicant's search for prior art was not limited to the OFFICIAL GAZETTE publication of the U.S. Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office. Novelty catalogs of every description were also painstakingly researched.
Although many hat inventions ranging from hats with radios, hats with drinking straws, hats with clapping hands, hats with clocks, hats with sunglasses attached to the brim, to hats with solar powered fans, none were remotely similar to a mechanized visor/brim display device that could be attached to an existing cap in an aftermarket type application.
Magic Visor (R) patent pending N. 75210371 distributed by Davidcraft Corporation, Ill. 60645 illustrates a battery powered visor that features a fan, a flashlight and an air freshener. The differences between this visor and the mechanized visor/brim display device are enormous. In addition to the fact that the Magic Visor does not have a reciprocator, or any other display capability, the Magic Visor is a one piece fan, flashlight, visor unit. Whereas the mechanized visor/brim display device does have enormous display capability and is a separate device which can be connected to any existing visor or brim.
The Johnson Smith Company (4514 9th Court East, P.0. Box 255500, Bradenton, Fla. 34206-5500) catalog offers for sale many interesting hat inventions and novelties in its current "Things You Never Knew Existed (TM) . . . and others you can't possibly live without!" catalog.
On page 24 of the company's catalog issue #912, the company offers for sale a Deluxe AM/FM cap. According to the sales copy it's a lightweight cap with a concealed built-in radio. Earphones are incorporated into the design and wires are hidden from view. A big selling feature of this cap is its hands-free operation.
Though it may be a novel idea putting a radio in a hat it is hardly as ingenious as the mechanized visor/brim display device. Radios are commonplace in our society, but a device mounted on a visor that expresses the sentiments of the wearer is unique.
On page 26 of the same catalog a hat is then combined with an even more commonplace article--a clock. Though perhaps a humorous idea, it does not demonstrate a bold new concept in hats and their devices as the mechanized visor/brim display device.
On page 53 of said catalog, a cap sports a pair of sunglasses from its visor. The applicant examined said cap and its tag revealed UVEXFLIP is a trademark of UVEX Winter Optical Inc., and that U.S. and foreign patents on this cap were pending.
Though the idea of utilizing the visor for more than a shading device is similar in idea to the mechanized visor/brim display device, that's where the comparison ends. The sunglasses and cap all in one invention puts together two items already in separate use into a combination. The mechanized visor/brim display device is a heretofore original device that uses the visor as the optimum display location.
On page 56 of said catalog, four other hat inventions are illustrated. Again, the drinking helmet, clapping cap, the solar powered Satari hat with built-in air-conditioning, and the pocket umbrella hat are all specialized single-unit hats. The mechanized visor/brim display device is an add-on device to an existing hat.
And what's more, the hats illustrated on said page 56 while they have tremendous notoriety, have nothing to do with a mechanized display device, visor/brim mounted or otherwise.
On page 6, in "The Sharper Image" (650 Davis Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94111) catalog (March 1991), they show a baseball cap with a solar powered fan. And while they are making the most of the visor for shading and cooling the wearer, they are not using the cap's display potential at all.